rodrick alexander
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 12, 2012
- 15,189
- 20,157
Polisi wa Italy wamesambaratisha genge la wauzaji na wasafirishaji wa madawa ya kulevya ambalo linahisiwa kuongozwa na Watanzania.
Chanzo: TBC Taifa habari ya saa nane
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Tanzanians among 19 arrested in Italy bust of international drug
Police in Italy say they have arrested 19 people, most of them Tanzanians, when dismantling an international ring of heroin traffickers in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Dar es Salaam. Police in Italy say they have arrested 19 people, most of them Tanzanians, when dismantling an international ring of heroin traffickers in Africa, Asia and Europe.
The Associated Press is reporting today, November 2, 2019, that one ringleader is a Tanzanian who, from his base in Poland, directed heroin shipments from Asia to Italy for street sales.
The identities of the said Tanzanians was not revealed and local anti-drug officials were not immediately available to comment on the reports.
Several other suspects are from Burundi, the news agency quoted Carabinieri paramilitary police in Rome as saying in a statement.
According to the police, the arrests stemmed from an investigation that begun in 2012 with a heroin seizure in Perugia, a university town in central Italy.
The authorities said the drug traffickers kept a low profile, living in modest homes and working as barbers, merchants and other legitimate professions. Since the probe began, 144 drug couriers have been arrested.
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Huge drug seizures in Tanzania have recently reduced as the anti-drug authority changed tact to clog the supply side, which used the country as a major cog for international dispatches. The continued arrests of Tanzanians abroad, however, suggests the drug traffickers could also be adopting new tricks to evade detection or arrest.
The Italian police reported that heroin worth $39 million (Sh89.7bn) and cocaine worth $4.7 million (Sh10.6bn) was seized, including two busts at Paris airports in 2015, one at Rome's main airport in 2013, and others in Santorini, Greece, in 2015 and another at Austria's border with Italy in 2013, where heroin was found inside a fire extinguisher in a Turkish truck that had set out by ferry from Greece to Trieste, Italy.
They said some of the intermediaries were based in Italy's Caserta area, where the Casalesi clan of the Camorra crime syndicate largely holds sway, and one of the suspects, from Ivory Coast, rented a villa owned by a Casalesi mobster.
Initially using Africans, traffickers later employed Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, Bulgarians and Hungarians as drug couriers, police said. The couriers reached Italy using cargo boats, planes, trains, buses and taxis.
Drugs were stockpiled in Turkey, Tanzania, South Africa, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, then transported to Poland and elsewhere northern Europe where, after various handoffs, they arrived in Italy.
Before 2013, police said, the delivery route was less circuitous, with couriers departing directly from the places where the drugs were produced -- heroin from Asia and cocaine from Latin America.
Those skilled at creating false bottoms in suitcases and backpacks, or cotton bags woven into underwear, were paid $1,000 (Sh2.3 million) per item, investigators said.
Source: The Citizen
Chanzo: TBC Taifa habari ya saa nane
====
Tanzanians among 19 arrested in Italy bust of international drug
Police in Italy say they have arrested 19 people, most of them Tanzanians, when dismantling an international ring of heroin traffickers in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Dar es Salaam. Police in Italy say they have arrested 19 people, most of them Tanzanians, when dismantling an international ring of heroin traffickers in Africa, Asia and Europe.
The Associated Press is reporting today, November 2, 2019, that one ringleader is a Tanzanian who, from his base in Poland, directed heroin shipments from Asia to Italy for street sales.
The identities of the said Tanzanians was not revealed and local anti-drug officials were not immediately available to comment on the reports.
Several other suspects are from Burundi, the news agency quoted Carabinieri paramilitary police in Rome as saying in a statement.
According to the police, the arrests stemmed from an investigation that begun in 2012 with a heroin seizure in Perugia, a university town in central Italy.
The authorities said the drug traffickers kept a low profile, living in modest homes and working as barbers, merchants and other legitimate professions. Since the probe began, 144 drug couriers have been arrested.
Advertisement
Huge drug seizures in Tanzania have recently reduced as the anti-drug authority changed tact to clog the supply side, which used the country as a major cog for international dispatches. The continued arrests of Tanzanians abroad, however, suggests the drug traffickers could also be adopting new tricks to evade detection or arrest.
The Italian police reported that heroin worth $39 million (Sh89.7bn) and cocaine worth $4.7 million (Sh10.6bn) was seized, including two busts at Paris airports in 2015, one at Rome's main airport in 2013, and others in Santorini, Greece, in 2015 and another at Austria's border with Italy in 2013, where heroin was found inside a fire extinguisher in a Turkish truck that had set out by ferry from Greece to Trieste, Italy.
They said some of the intermediaries were based in Italy's Caserta area, where the Casalesi clan of the Camorra crime syndicate largely holds sway, and one of the suspects, from Ivory Coast, rented a villa owned by a Casalesi mobster.
Initially using Africans, traffickers later employed Italians, Greeks, Spaniards, Bulgarians and Hungarians as drug couriers, police said. The couriers reached Italy using cargo boats, planes, trains, buses and taxis.
Drugs were stockpiled in Turkey, Tanzania, South Africa, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, then transported to Poland and elsewhere northern Europe where, after various handoffs, they arrived in Italy.
Before 2013, police said, the delivery route was less circuitous, with couriers departing directly from the places where the drugs were produced -- heroin from Asia and cocaine from Latin America.
Those skilled at creating false bottoms in suitcases and backpacks, or cotton bags woven into underwear, were paid $1,000 (Sh2.3 million) per item, investigators said.
Source: The Citizen
